Yelling ‘Stay’ In A Burning Theater—–Yellen Ignites Another Robo-Trader Spasm, by David Stockman

From David Stockman at davidstockmanscontracorner.com:

Simple Janet has attained a new milestone as a public menace with her speech to the Economic Club of New York. It amounted to yelling “stay” in a burning theater!

The stock market has been desperately trying to correct for months now because even the casino regulars can read the tea leaves. That is, earnings are plunging, global trade and growth are swooning and central bank “wealth effects” pumping has not trickled down to the main street economy. Besides, there are too many hints of market-killing recessionary forces for even the gamblers to believe that the Fed has abolished the business cycle.

So by the sheer cowardice and risibility of her speech, Simple Janet has triggered still another robo-trader spasm in the casino. Yet this latest run at resistance points on a stock chart that has been rolling over for nearly a year now underscores how absurd and dangerous 87 months of ZIRP and wealth effects pumping have become.

As we have indicated repeatedly, S&P 500 earnings—–as measured by the honest GAAP accounting that the SEC demands on penalty of jail——-have now fallen 18.5% from their peak. The latter was registered in the LTM period ending in September 2014 and clocked in at $106 per share.

As is shown in the graph below, the index was trading at 1950 at that time. The valuation multiple at a sporty 18.4X, therefore, was already pushing the envelope given the extended age of the expansion.

Indeed, even back then there were plenty of headwinds becoming evident. These included global commodity deflation, a rapid slowdown in the pace of capital spending and the vast build-up of debt and structural barriers to growth throughout China and its EM supply train, as well as Japan, Europe and the US.

In the interim it has all been downhill on the profit and macroeconomic front. By the March 2015 LTM period, S&P reported profits had dropped to $99 per share and have just kept sliding, posting at only $86.44 per share for the December 2015 LTM period just completed.

So there you have it. The casino has actually been trying to mark-down the Bubble Finance inflated stock prices that the Fed’s wealth effects lunacy has generated since the great financial crisis. Yet our Keynesian school marm and her posse just keep finding one excuse after another to feed the algos.

Indeed, Yellen had barely ambled up to the rostrum, and they had the market back up to 2065. After Friday’s further bump to 2072, the math of that is a round 24X earnings.

That’s right. With ample evidence of financial risk and bubbles cropping up everywhere during the past 18 months, Simple Janet stood there at the New York Economics Club podium and threw the robo-traders a big sloppy wet one!

To continue reading: Yelling ‘Stay’ In A Burning Theater—–Yellen Ignites Another Robo-Trader Spasm